FEVER ANNOUNCES 2011 REGULAR SEASON SCHEDULE

December 21, 2010 | Full season | Half season | PDF scheduleThe Indiana Fever has announced its 2011 Women’s National Basketball Association schedule. Indiana will play 34 regular-season games including its home and season opener on Saturday, June 4 against I-65 rival and Eastern Conference foe Chicago (7:00 p.m.).

A WNBA playoff participant in each of the past six seasons, the Fever opens its 12th season with home games against the Sky and New York Liberty. Following its opening game, Indiana hosts a Friday night game with the Liberty, June 10 (7:00 p.m.) before traveling to New York the following night to cap a weekend rematch of last year’s Eastern Conference semifinal series.

The following Tuesday, June 14, the Fever hosts the Tulsa Shock in its only ESPN national TV game.

The Fever enters the new season under the direction of fourth-year head coach Lin Dunn and a core of returning veterans that includes All-Stars Tamika Catchings, Katie Douglas and Tammy Sutton-Brown. Hoping for a return to the WNBA Finals where it landed in 2009, Indiana will play a schedule that consists of 22 games against the Eastern Conference and 12 against the West. The Fever will play four games apiece against Eastern foes Atlanta, Chicago and New York; and square off against Connecticut and Washington five times. Home and away games are scheduled against each of six Western Conference opponents.

Indiana, which has seen an attendance increase in four straight seasons, will play 24 of 34 games during a Thursday-to-Sunday window each week. Indiana’s regular season schedule concludes Sunday, Sept. 11 when the Fever hosts the Atlanta Dream.

Fever schedule highlights for the upcoming season include:

Indiana’s home opener is Saturday, June 4 against the Chicago Sky, led by All-Star and Olympian Sylvia Fowles. The opener pits Eastern Conference rivals separated by just 184 miles of Interstate 65.

The Fever’s longest homestand is a five-game stretch between June 28 and July 15. Featured are dates with 2009 champion Phoenix (June 28) and 2010 champion Seattle (July 5), and the annual Kids Day date against Connecticut (July 13). The afternoon contest has annually drawn one of the Fever’s largest crowds of the season.

Indiana will play its final eight games all against teams from the Eastern Conference.